Decision this week on Sky’s ITV shares

The final decision is expected to be made on the shares in ITV held by fellow broadcaster BSkyB.

This is one of the major hurdles facing the UK broadcasting sector at the moment and the result could mean serious consequences for the industry as a whole.

This decision has been delayed, as it initially should have been made by the Court of Appeal before the end of 2009.

However this week we will finally see if the satellite broadcaster will be able to retain its 17.9 per cent share holding in ITV or not.

BSkyB bought the shareholding in 2006 to prevent NTL from buying ITV.

The company paid 135p per share, which works out at about £940 million, yet since then the price has fallen and currently is around 50p per share, meaning that BSkyB stands to lose many millions if the decision goes against it.